Prior to Chanel’s Fall-Winter 2017 show, eighteen-year-old Amandla Stenberg, the quintessential “it-girl”, took a tour of Coco Chanel’s apartment in Paris and sat down with InStyle Magazine to talk about everything from gender to fashion to self-expression.
Known for being not only an A-list actress, the young starlet is also a budding model and unrelenting social advocate with a dedication to push young adults to speak out and up about things that matter.
Coco Chanel, sharing many of the same characteristics as Stenberg, was also dedicated to liberating women. Her medium-fashion and self-expression, both things that Stenberg utilizes to reach generation Z. “Something that Mademoiselle Chanel did so well was to utilize the power of comfort to make beautiful statements and craft intricate pieces of fashion,” Stenberg tells InStyle. “That’s something I try to cultivate. How to use fashion and how to use comfort, for me, a lot of times [means] dressing like a boy…and how to intermingle that with a sense of personal flare and attention to detail. That’s something that [Chanel] did masterfully. When you’re comfortable in what you’re wearing you feel the most powerful. You radiate the most. People can sense that immediately. I’m not necessarily drawn to one particular style, but to people who know how to take their insecurities, spin them on their axes and present them to the world through their clothing.”
Stenberg has made it her purpose in life to practice what she preaches. The teen starlet has taken on some of the most powerful and prolific roles in her young career, starting with her Hallmark performance in The Hunger Games. That is why it comes as no surprise that she unquestionably embodies every aspect that the Chanel brand represents in terms of freedom, gender, fluidity, and ease.
“I think something that was a huge imitation for me was gender. I thought that I had to dress a certain way in order to appear female, in order to subscribe to certain beauty standards, in order to look pretty,” she comments in her interview. “And once I lifted that limitation off of myself of trying to look digestible, especially to the male gaze, it was a lot easier for me to find what style actually suited me…Chanel is one of those brands that I feel comfortable in. It doesn’t make me feel like I’m trying to fit into a box that doesn’t feel natural to me. That’s super rare for a luxury brand.”
Whatever the look, Stenberg pulls it off without a hitch. Her beauty, grace, and strength are staples of the Chanel brand in any generation and she unquestionably wears it well.
